5 December 2019

In the aftermath of DFS Dorch’s very successful concert last night, we gathered in the warm to hear all about how good it was. 

Ed threw out a few future dates, and a reminder for dress code and then it was time to run through our Christmassy songs again. If you enjoyed last years workshop ‘Day At The Musicals’ keep an ear out for next years ‘Day At The Movies’ .... 

Lifted cheekbones, to keep the sound brighter, and supported singing to keep us in tune, are needed for O Come and Once. 

Carol of The Bells features a strange phenomenon in that it slows down when we hit merry, merry, merry. Also we all breathed at the same time, but I rather fear I ended up light headed. After a little work we improved the pace, and only had the ending to improve. Ed will sleep well tonight. Well, maybe. 

Stage left was rather lacking tonight, and by that I mean quantity not quality. This was going to make The Holly And The Ivy very interesting. Just checking the allocation of numbered parts was fraught enough. Do not be tempted to follow any wrong notes with a cheeky raspberry sound. Especially next week, when you will also remember to repeat the last chorus!

Of course O Holy Night contains a trap into which many choir members fall, the trap of not singing the chorus the same both times that you sing it! Yet tonight we fell not. 

Ever challenging is tequila, and when I do an exclusive interview of Ed for the blog I shall be asking where his inspiration for this shenanigans came from! It’s all about coming in at the right place and making sure your kazoo has been tuned properly before being hidden carefully on your person ready for its moment! 

Just for fun at the end we whipped out YouTube to sing some party songs for a treat after all that hard work! Waterloo and then some of us went to the Spa .... for tequila! 

Oh my golly gosh DFS, you are amazing. Just the way you are! I’ve not laughed so much in ages! Xxx

28 November 2019

The baubles were up in reception tonight, about time too said no one. Ed startled everyone with his good evening.... he reminded us that next Wednesday is the Dorchester Christmas Concert and thanked people for bringing raffle prizes for that event. 

Dress code for the concerts is baubles out, if you want too. Looks very effective with black bottoms I believe. Both concerts start at 7pm. Please sit at the back and bring some lots of mince pies, or other sweet nibbles that people like. 

Then we ran through lots of songs .... ran being the operative word, apart from Carol Of The Bells when we slowed down to a somewhat sleazy speed and had to start again. The structure and the important things we will possibly forget were carefully spelled out as we went along. Please see the last two blogs for hints and tips and better jokes. 

We didn’t have time to run through songs twice but Ed read out a review including careful use of DONGS and encouraged people to make notes. So I tried. Please remember the air gap in tequila! Enjoy the breather, and follow Ed’s signals. 

Well done choir, it’s almost Christmas! I love you, keep singing xxx

21 November 2019

So .... Aaaaah ..... said Ed. And told us the running order for both concerts and is as printed in our booklets, apart from some very small changes. We chatted about raffles, mince pies, songs saved for encores, and why we weren’t singing in town, and we were off. 

Once In Royal David’s City sounded out all beautiful and unaccompanied and very festive. We sung versus one and four of this and also of O Come O Come Emmanuel as we appeared to be in a terrible hurry for an undisclosed reason. 

Carol Of The Bells sounded much better this week. It just makes me think of seasonal adverts. Ones with actual roasted turkeys on the table and not dragons. It’s an audience shocker, and one to come back later, before turfing out time. It’s quite good until the end when the Bells get a bit cracked and rusty. 

Good King Wenceslas looked badly spelled, but isn’t and tripped off our practices tongues as Ed stood to play more assertively his jolly keyboard... 

See Amid The Winter Snow revised the men’s parts first. It sort of disappeared so had a go at joining in too. And so did the rest of choir. Oops. But eventually is sounded PERFECT so we moved on to The Holly And The Ivy which is our favourite by far this festive season! This won’t leave a dry eye in the house. We also revisited this again right before bedtime, and Ed just listened, and some number twos went missing! Perhaps it might be ok if we practice during the concert too? 

A breath of fresh air, we were Walking In A Winter Wonderland and O Holy Night. Truly He tortoise. Be careful to leave out the slides. You will only slip on the ice and we should be heading carefully towards Hark The Herald Angels Sing. It surely will be alright on the night. Ed sang the descant part to demonstrate. 

O Come, All Ye Faithful will be all three verses on the night but we missed out the middle verse and all the descant singing was very lovely. Ed said very well done, and we had a rest singing Merry Christmas Everyone and Rocking Around The Christmas Tree! 

And a song that was a [sexy] solo for me last year, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas doesn’t give our choir too much trouble either. 

I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas is really a lie because then the concert might be snowed off and we don’t want that. 

Those kazoos where whipped out for our surprise encore Tequila! Truly unmissable I hope someone records that little gem! A real Fairy Tale Of New York I’m sure. The men do really on this one, apart from when they steal the women’s parts! 

Well done DFS, stay warm and happy. Keep singing love Cat the Blogger xxx 

14 November 2019

So what do you want for Christmas? I’ll have a think about that. Ed arrived with apologies for leaving behind a folder of very important music behind. The night of Forgetfulness followed on from the night of Remembrance. 

The town council have asked us to perform on VE Day next year which will be on the may bank holiday weekend. On Saturday we said. That’s because we sang so well the other weekend and the town council noticed. And we are also invited to sing again at Sutton Poyntz street fare. 

We moved to Once In Royal for a warm up. I do miss a good Dum Dum Diddley ... the first verse is a Capella but needs to be a little more up tempo than it was. 

O Holy Night needs to be so precisely sung, with proper diction. Ed will be sharing recordings of harmonies some time soon so look out for those in his drop box. High note second time only, and when it is time for it, to for it in a big way! Spoonerisms are to be avoided at all costs at the end of the first line. Look it up if you have to, I’m not spelling out what was sung stage right.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel was launched with Ed singing through the harmony and missing out breathing. It’s worth it though because it sounded lovely all played in the Key of David. Higgeldy piggeldy. 

Hark! How The Bells 🔔 still feels very complicated to us. I think I only know it because of swanky Christmas adverts on the telly. Some of us got lost in the words. The rooms split into ones and twos for our second run through. Then our choir master quit pounding the piano and announced that this song will actually be sung a Capella and we were delighted. Some wanted us to split into four parts but we declined...

Good King Wenceslas is all ours. That is, at the concert some songs will be available for the audience to sing too, but only some and not all, and there will be some song sheets available for them. This song however will be only for us to sing and is already concert ready!

See Amid The Winter Snow is short and sweet and with a big ending. There’s a nice low harmony for the men but they keep losing it under their seats! 

And then a discussion before singing that radical version of The Holly And The Ivy. We will definitely not allow audiences participation for this little gem. 

Walking In A Winter Wonderland was a walk in a very easy place after that last song. 

Our choir master promised us descants for Hark The Herald and O Come, All Ye Faithful  broke them down very nicely. The congregation will love joinig in and help cover up all our bum notes ...

DFS be proud. You are amazing. I love you! Cat xxx 

7 November 2019

Merry Christmas! We all collected some lovely Christmas themed song booklet. Ed gave DFS his greatful thanks for everyone who came along on Sunday and shared some photos from the event itself. Forms will be available next week to buy a copy of the DVD, which is also the deadline. 

In concert news, our venue has been confirmed as the church here at St Aldhelms, 12 December, and is a lovely venue and I will make sure has a plug in the church newsletter, if it’s ok with the big man. Ed I mean, not God. We don’t have many concerts this year but are due to sing carols on the 14 December at Shire Hall Museum. I hope we can sing in the court room that would be fun. 

We whipped out out the brand new song books ...

We began our singing with Once In Royal David’s City. A capele for the first verse only. Please do sing any descant parts if you know them. 

O Holy Night. Don’t go too high the first time. We of course needed a reminder. Also don’t go a bit Millward on ‘O night Devine’ and stay sober. Good. 

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is not such a well known him. Tiësto Picardy. 

Then things got complicated with Hark How The Bells and that was before we added in any other parts! And when we did... being mindful that the Dings and Dongs were all in the right place on our lyrics sheets. The room split into sides. 

Good King Wenceslas through the rude winds wild lament went we! See Amid The Winter Snow featured a nice new part for men. And a warning to sing in tune! 

There is another version of The Holly And The Ivy which has a different tune and is actually a round. Choir thought our choir master had made it up. Yehaw. Two, three and then four overlapping parts were attempted. Hmmmmm. It took some work but we sort of got there before trying to sing Walking Round In Womens Underwear. Wait. That’s seasonal shopping in Debenhams. I’m really getting into the spirit now. 

Fine. Hark The Herald with descants welcome, so O Come All Ye Faithful. All good, so we fast forward to page 14, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas which I just remembered I did as a solo last year. All sultry like. Pass me a sherry darling..... 

We finished on a fun note with Fairy Tale Of New York split into male a female parts. Maybe I should rephrase that. Perfect. 

And keep singing. You got this! Please bring your kazoos next week for some more festive fun. Love, Cat xxx 

Ps how about this https://youtu.be/ETe6jOt6BnI

Weymouth Festival of Remembrance

As you may know, the blogger was not free to attend this very important event, but I am so Proud of you that I’ve found a way to blog about it anyway! 

Our dear choir master had this to share after the event, “Thank you so much to all who came along tonight and joined in a beautiful concert of remembrance for our fallen soldiers and their families. You sang with every ounce of passion, respect and honour and I am so proud to be your director. This is everything Dorset for Singing was created for, thank you again xx.”

This wonderful photo of you all shining was taken by Graham Hunt Photography and is shared with kind permission of Weymouth Festival of Remembrance. 

Well done DFS and see you Thursday xxx 

17 October 2019

We were a little late because Ed had lost his voice and was trying to find it. But we did find the source of his Worst Ever Cold among the choir members, in the form of a stolen kiss. 

There are only two rehearsals before the British Legion concert, and we peeped at some of the details on the screen. No going to the pub inbeteeen rehearsals etc, without inviting all the other members of choir. 

We began our singing with I Vow To Thee Vowing one day to have proper silly warm-ups like we used to back in our ‘other venue’, then switched to a less squeaky key. But what key will the band play in on the actual day? 

A hymn next, one which I should know well, as my grandma once heard my father sitting on the front step singing, ‘For nosey Beryl on the sea’, and Beryl is the name of my aunt. Eternal Father may have been sung well by choir but not by yours truly who does only actually know the last line. 

We stood to sing The National Anthem because it would be rude not too, and it was followed by the end of the telly, or the strange feeling that we should go home. But we didn’t and Ed left the piano because You Raise Me Up came with a backing track. Mind the gap everyone! The Air con fired up and we tackled a key change as Peter popped in to warm us up again, and we practiced the harmonies and uniqueness that was the last line. 

We mostly missed the intro and therefore our cue to start singing The Pipes Of Peace. Take two. What are we gonna do on the night as I think only I sing a certain line, and I’m not absolutely sure i can be there on the night. Perhaps someone will win that opportunity next week? 

A mood change is provided by Oom-Pah-Pah remembering to sway from the second time we Oom-pah-pah, and gently back down to earth with Wartime Medley because it starts with White cliffs of Dover ...a few odd notes crept in, around Jimmy’s bedroom area. 

Ed nearly missed out Get Here but we all shouted at him. I find the phrasing hard in this one. Ed went over some parts of it with us. 

So Keep The Home Fires Burning perhaps to warm us up before heading off into the cold night air. There are some parts of this we are certainly more confident with indeed! There was a request that we try and make sure we all sing the same melody. Ed bashed it out on the piano and Matty waiting outside for me thought we were singing tiptoe through the window! Oh well, that’s not far off! We stood to sing to end the evening on a good note, well maybe...

Well done choir, lovely as usual, keep singing, Cat xxx

10 October 2019

Before we opened our vocal folds we recived our running order for the royal British legeon concert.  

You raise me up

The pipes of peace 

Oom pah pah

Interval

War time medley 

Get here 

Keep the home fires burning 

And we began with You Raise Me Up which was a warm up, and following a mini debate on which folder is best for wielding at concerts. Ed reminded us of the new harmony part again, and about the gap in the waiting here in the silence sort of area. 

Moving on to The Pipes Of Peace and it also has a backing track. This one has long and lovely overlapping backing tracking tracks. We practiced those a bit and had a good and useful chat about them. 

Bravely Ed has already added Oom Pah Pah to a concert without us ever having sung it, until now! We were wanted to be very careful with Mr Percy Snodgrass! Fabulous ending I have to say. We are required to sway for the chorus parts and come back to a still stance for the verses. 

A War Time Medley moment was upon us. After a run Ed did a wash up, found the missing rabbits and firmed up a few notes. There’s an extra rabbit-run to cross out too. Don’t lets run on too long. 

It was quite a night. It was time to Get Here. Ed’s interpretive dance was breathtaking. Ed’s going to sing a version of this to record and help us learn the right notes. We don’t follow the original very closely, but he sat at the piano to help us sort things out. 

And in the correct key this week we Keep The Home Fires Burning whether the backing track (too busy buffering) or on the piano, 2, 3! Ed will also record a version of this too because there were some bum notes again.

Finally for a treat and because the backing track worked, we sang Wild West Hero and it was very meaty indeed with lots of depth. Remember your a Womble. 

Keep up the good work DFS, I love you, Cat the Blogger xxx